Turton



April 3, 1962 W. TURTON IRICOT FABRIC WITH SATIN FACE:

5 Sheets-Sheet l Filed June 28, 1956 BGCk WOrp (back bar motion |.2-|.O)

INVEN WA!- TER TURTON BY W TTRNEYS April 3, 1962 w. TuRToN A 3,027,738

TRICOT FABRIC WITH SATIN FACE Filed June 28, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.. A/A L rsf? 7519 ro/v A TOQNEYS April 3, 1962 W. TURToN 3,027,738 TRIcoI FABRIC WITH SATIN FACE Filed June 28, 1956 5 Sheets-Shee'rI 3? IN VEN TOR. Mu rs1? 75 Tofy nite Filed .lune Z8, 1956, Ser. No. 594,480 8 Claims. (Cl. 66-195) The present invention relates generally to textile fabrics and more particularly to improved tricot fabrics having a satin face and to techniques for producing such fabrics.

By reason of their stretch characteristics, tricot fabrics are especially suitable for use in underwear garments and to some extent in outerwear garments. The smooth hand or feel of a satin-faced fabric is of distinct advantage both in under and outer Wear garments. However, it has not heretofore been possible to impart a satin face to a tricot fabric in a manner commercially acceptable in the American market.

While in European countries a satin-type tricot fabric has been produced in the past, such fabrics have not enjoyed commercial success to any marked degree. The failure of Such fabrics to gain popularity is due principally to their ribby appearance, which is a marked departure from accepted standards for a satin face. Apart from the ribby appearance, such fabrics could not be successfully merchandized in the United States because of the relative heavy weight hitherto associated with their construction. Moreover, such construction depends on floats of yarn to achieve the Satin effect, thereby rendering the fabric highly susceptible to snagging or catching.

It may be said therefore that the three major drawbacks incident to previous attempts to fabricate satinfaced tricot materials reside in the ribbiness which detracts from the satin face, the excessive weight of the fabric as a compromise to impressing suiiicient yarn on one face to attain a satin hand, and the high snagging properties of such fabrics. These drawbacks are interrelated as will be evident from the following analysis.

In conventional tricot fabrics knitted 168 inches wide at the needles, processing of the fabrics tends to elongate the fabric from its knitted length. This elongation is accompanied by a proportionate decrease in the knitted width. It gives rise to a decreased number of courses per inch in the finished fabric as compared to the number of courses per inch at which the fabric was knitted, thereby accounting for the ribbed appearance across the width of the fabric. Otherwise stated, the more the fabric is elongated or the course per inch decreased, the more pronounced the rib.

In order to reduce the ribbed effect, a maximum number of courses per inch has heretofore been necessary, and though this alleviates ribbing to some extent, the fabric when pulled lengthwise is loosely packed with yarn on one surface. By virtue of this loose packing of the yarn, the individual yarn filaments used in the iioats tend to open out as a result of which the fabric offers extremely low abrasion properties. Furthermore, the filament or ends are readily caught in usage, thereby producing snags and a generally unsatisfactory fabric. Thus expedients heretofore used to minimize ribbiness have been at the expense of other important properties of the fabric and the resultant product has not satisfied commercial standards.

In View of the foregoing, it is the main object of this invention to provide a superior tricot fabric having a satin face, the fabric being free of the shortcomings characterizing the prior art.

More specifically it is an object of the invention to provide a tricot fabric having a ribless satin face and a States Patent O 3,027,738 Patented Apr. 3, 1962 smooth hand, which fabric is obtained by a predetermined stitch formation and finishing techniques.

Also an object of the invention is to provide a Satinfaced tricot fabric of acceptable weight for the intimate apparel trade. A significant feature of the invention resides in the use of a fine denier yarn as a binder and a medium denier for the face, whereby the resultant fabric is light in weight and suitable in a wide variety of applications.

A further object of the invention is to provide a satinfaced tricot fabric which is resistant to snagging, such resistance being obtained by a twist pre-inserted in the yarns forming the face of the fabric.

Briefly stated, in a tricot fabric in accordance with the invention, the yarns forming the top warp are pretwisted and knit in a stitch formation dening a satin face, the yarns forming said satin face being of medium weight while those forming the back warp being of light weight.

For a better understanding of the invention, as well as other objects and further features thereof, reference is made to the following detailed description to be read in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 shows in enlarged form, the top warp of a preferred embodiment of a tricot fabric in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 shows the back warp of said fabric.

FIG. 3 shows the fabric of FIGS. 1 and 2 as a unitary whole.

FIG. 4 schematically depicts an embodiment of the present invention wherein the stitch formation of the top yarns is l.0-4.5 and the back yarns is 1.2-1.0.

FIG. 5 schematically depicts an embodiment of the present invention in which the stitch formation of the top yarns is 1.0-4.5 and the back yarns is 1.2-1.0.

FIG. 6 schematically depicts an embodiment of the present invention in which the stitch formation of the top yarns is 0.1-5.4 and the back yarns is 2.1-0.1.

The standard tricot machine employs a needle bar to which knitting needles are aiiixed and move as a unit, and two guide bars which are arranged one in front of the other. Although they are connected so that they both swing through the needles as a unit, each guide bar is capable of lateral movement completely independent of the other. The guide bars are supplied with yarn by respective warp beams, the two warp beams being mounted one above the other at the back of the machine.

The tricot machine uses one or more warps, as in Weaving, but unlike weaving there is no weft thread in the accepted sense of the term to bind the fabric together. In the tricot machine, each warp thread is caused by the knitting mechanism to be connected or interknit to the threads adjoining it on either side. A detailed description of the basic component of a conventional tricot machine and of tricot pattern formation may be found in the text Tricot Fabric Design, by Thomas H. Johnson-McGraw-Hill Book ICompany, Inc., 1946.

The fabric in accordance with the invention is construoted on -a standard two-guide bar tricot machine, as above described, the yarn for the face of the fabric being fed to the front bar. The yarn for the face is to be heavier than that on the back bar and may be between thirty and sixty denier. The yarn on the back bar is to be lighter in weight than that on the front and may be between fifteen or twenty denier. For example, a combination of twenty denier on the back and forty denier on the front has been found to be satisfactory in practice, but other deniers may also be used as long as the front yarn is of medium weight relative to a lighter rear yarn.

Suitable for purposes of the tricot fabric in `accordance with the invention are synthetic yarns spun to a fine denier, such as nylon, Orlon and Dacron yarns.

The knitting pattern of the tricot fabric having a satin face has a Stich formation on the front or face which may be in the knitting sequence 1.0-3.4 or 1.0-4.5. The stitch formation on the back is 1.2-1.0. Alternatively, the stitch formation on the front may be 0.1-4.3 or 0.1- 5.4 and that on the back 2.1-0.1. Other combinations of the above-noted knitting sequences may also be employed.

In order that the filaments may be held together at all times and thereby afford a fabric with satisfactory snag resistance, the yarn on the front bar is pretwisted with a minimum of approximately eight turns per inch. The back yarn may be similarly twisted, although such twist is not essential to the invention.

FIG. 1 represents the 1.0-3.4 motion on the front bar of the tricot machine used in conjunction with the heavier twisted yarn. FIG. 2 shows the knitting formation of the back guide bar which carries the lighter denier and the stitch formation of 1.2-1.0.

During. processing of the greige fabric produced in the manner disclosed above, it is important that elongation be minimized and the fabric be held to width during the usual scouring andl dyeing operations. In other words, the fabric is maintained dead to width. To this end, the dyeing is preferably carried out by the beam pressure package dyeing technique.

In framing, the fabric is held out to its maximum Width and overfeeding in the tenter frame may or may not be used to allow this maximum width. By heat-setting, the fabric will remain dimensionally stable at this width within the commercial tolerances or shrinkage, etc.

T he finished fabrics created by this process differs from conventional tricot fabrics in that the stretch in the fabric is lengthwise and the width is stable. Garments made from such fabric must necessarily be cut differently rwith the panels in the lengths of -the garment cut across the widths of the fabric to prevent droop.

Thus the novel combination of processes described above for stitch formation and finishing results in a smooth satin-faced tricot fabric embodying qualities which render the fabric commercially acceptable and obviate the drawbacks of the prior art.

While there has been shown what areconsidered to be a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be manifest that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the essential spirit of the invention. It is intended, therefore, in the annexed claims to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A smooth satin-faced tricot fabric having synthetic yarns forming a top warp and synthetic yarns forming a back warp, said top yarns being in a float stitch formation providing a satin face, said top yarns being of weight in the order of thirty to sixty denier, said back yarns being of a weight in the order of fifteen to twenty denier, said top yarns being twisted with a minimum of about eight turns per inch, said fabric having a finish rendering the width thereof stable whereby the fabric is stretchable in length only.

2. A tricot fabric as set forth in claim 1, wherein the stitch formation of the top yarns is 1.0-4.5 and the back yarns is 1.2-1.0.

3. A tricot fabric as set forth in claim 1, wherein the stitch formation of the top yarns is 0.1-4.3 and the back yarns is 2.1-0.1.

4. A tricot fabric as set forth in claim 1, wherein the stich formation of the top yarns is 0.1-5.4 and the back yarns is 2.1-0.1.

5. A smooth satin-faced tricot fabric having synthetic yarns forming a top warp and synthetic yarns forming a back warp, said top yarns being in a float stitch formation 1.0-3.4, said top` yarns being of weight in the order of thirty to sixty denier, said back yarns being in a stitch formation 1.2-1.0 and of a Weight in the order of fifteen to twenty denier, said top yarns being twisted with a minimum of about eight turns per inch.

6. A tricot fabric as set forth in claim 1, wherein said yarns are formed or Orlon.

7. A tricot fabric as set forth in claim 1, wherein said yarns are formed of Dacron.

8. A tricot fabric as set forth in claim 1, wherein said yarns are formed of nylon.

OTHER REFERENCES Warp Knitting Technology, by D. F. Paling, pages 46-50, 57-59, 95, and 201; published by Harlequin Press, Manchester and London.

Tricot Fabric Design, T. H. Johnson, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1947.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE 0F CORRECTION Patent No. 3,027,738 April 3, 1962 Walter Tur-ton It is hereby certified that error appears n the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 2, line 36, for "1.0-4.5" read 0.1-4.3 column 3,

line 5, for "Stich" read stitch line 34, for "or" read of column 4, line 19, for "Stich" read stitch line 30, for "or" read of Signed and sealed this 31st day of July 1962.

(SEAL) Attest: ERNEST w. swTDER DAVID L- LADD Alteling Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A SMOOTH SATIN-FACED TRICOT FABRIC HAVING SYNTHETIC YARNS FORMING A TOP WRAP AND SYNTHETIC YARNS FORMING A BACK WARP, SAID TOP YARNS BEING IN A FLOAT STITCH FORMATION PROVIDING A SATIN FACE, SAID TOP YARNS BEING OF WEIGHT IN THE ORDER OF THIRTY TO SIXTY DENIER, SAID BACK YARNS BEING OF A WEIGHT IN THE ORDER OF FIFTEEN TO TWENTY DENIER, SAID TOP YARNS BEING TWISTED WITH A MINIMUM OF ABOUT EIGHT TURNS PER INCH, SAID FABRIC HAVING A FINISH RENDERING THE WIDTH THEREOF STABLE WHEREBY THE FABRIC IS STRECHABLE IN LENGTH ONLY. 